An edublog allows for quick and direct communication with parents and students. This gives students a place to post remarks, chat with each other, and ask you questions. Having your own class website can also be a significant part of your own professional development as well, it building your teaching portfolio in very direct manner and allows you to keep track of student improvement. Consider having an online gradebook for transparency between students and parents. This means no more having to

A newsletter is important for creating a school culture, not just a classroom culture! It can help build a community and this article shows how a few particular schools choose to send out and create their newsletters.

This is a great tool if you have Microsoft installed, it makes building your newsletter very simple and once you create a template - each month (or week if you choose) can be easily changed and saved. This is good if you want to put the newsletter up online too, as most people who want to open the link will have Microsoft Office.

I love this explore function on Pinterest that allows me to see what other teachers have done for their newsletters, I get ideas of what to do and what not to do! I love the community aspect of this type of page as well, and it's fun to see what types of events are going on in other Elementary schools!

If you're tech savvy, or if your school is focused on going green - building a website for your class is a good way to keep in touch with parents without wasting paper. You can also create an area for your students to turn in assignments. This is handy if they will be absent for any reason. Creating a one-touch messaging system is great for parents who want to contact you as well. I love having an open dialogue between parents and myself, and having a website to direct them through is amazing.